Thursday, November 17, 2016

Digital vs Physical Delivery of Content

Is anyone else really confused why in God's name it is cheaper to purchase a physical copy of multiple types of digital content than to download it through the standard mechanisms?

The best example was this past week, where Titanfall 2 and Battefields 1 were both on sale from Amazon.

Buy digital : $ 59 99 Download now!Buy new : $ 35 00

So the options were to buy a physical copy, which involved producing the disc and assorted material, shipping it to a distribution center, then shipping it yet again to my house, for $24.99 less than buying a digital copy (which the content producer has a higher control on and I cannot re-sell or lend out to another person)!? Yes, there are some costs to the digital distribution (bandwidth and (hah) storage), but those have to marginal compared to the entire supply chain to provide the digital copy. If they were comparable in cost I would definitely do the digital, even though I as the consumer come away less well off (because I cannot share nor can I sell it) because in the end I don't want more little plastic cases taking up space in my bookcases. I will take the hit because it seems the logical, and environmental, way to go.

This problem has also been observed in some cases in music (for example it has been cheaper to buy the CD and get the digital copy for free than to buy the digital copy) and for books.With DRM getting relatively hard to remove and people being relatively lazy, piracy isn't really a concern anymore either.

I just don't get it. We are in the 21st Century, why are we stuck doing this stuff the old way!?